m_findlow

Title: Just add sunlight
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Ianto, Owen
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 131 - Sun at anythingdrabble
Summary: Owen is having a hard time keeping a very important plant alive.

'You'd better not kill that,' Ianto warned Owen. 'Jack says that plant has all kinds of medicinal applications.'

Owen rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, thanks for that, Teaboy. Why d'you think I'm keeping such a keen eye on it? If it does half the things Jack claims we can completely overhaul modern medicine as we know it.'

'Just saying it isn't looking so good. At least not as good as when we found it.'

'It's just taking a little while to acclimatise to the conditions on Earth. How'd you like it if you were ripped from your world and forced to breathe a totally different mix of oxygen?'

'Last I checked plants didn't need oxygen. Plants need sunlight.'

Owen huffed, disgusted that he was having to discuss the finer points of biology with a layman. 'They’ve got light. These hothouse lamps give off enough UV radiation to grow a whole jungle. They’re more advanced than the ones NASA are building to grow food on Mars.'

'One small step for Torchwood,' Ianto quipped.

'Look, haven't you got better things to do? I think I know how to take care of a bunch of plants without you hovering over me, offering your expertise.'

Ianto snorted. 'Oh? You’re a botanist now as well as a doctor?'

'They’re a lot less hard work than you lot, that’s for sure. What's your highest level of biology qualifications?'

'A Levels.'

'Exactly. So bugger off and let me do my job.'

Owen hated to admit defeat but after three days, his plant was looking more shriveled and sad than ever before. It just didn't make any sense. He was doing everything right, monitoring its water levels, not overfeeding it, keeping it away from plants that wanted to compete for light, but still it wasn't happy. Fed up with his lack of progress, he headed out, borrowing every book on the matter from the local library and taking them home to study. It wouldn't do to being them back to the hub and have to admit he was bamboozled.

After a whole night of poring over endless books, he'd made a list of things he could try, bolstered by his newfound confidence he could turn the situation around. When he arrived at the hub however, the plant was missing.

'Oi! Where's my obilius lateratus?'

'I put it just outside the tourist office yesterday,' Ianto replied.

'What did you do that for?'

'Looked like it was on death's door so I put it there for some sun.'

'If you've gone and killed it...' Owen seethed, marching back towards the lift with Ianto on his tail the whole way until he slammed open the tourist office door.

'See? It's fine,' Ianto said. 'If anything it looks like it's perked right back up. I told you it needed some sun.' Ianto looked suitably smug. 'Sometimes there's just no substitute for the real thing.'

'Yeah, well don't get too cocky. Cardiff only gets one sunny day a year and we've just had it.'